Now Penthouse Leaves Even Less To Imagine

After years of teasing readers with erotic images of the human anatomy in every conceivable position - and some that most people couldn't possibly conceive - Penthouse is going all the way.

The July issue depicts two people engaged in sex, traditionally taboo for mainstream magazines, even those dealing in skin, which always left a little something to the imagination. According to Penthouse, the couple are married performance artists who do this sort of thing on stage.

Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione said he thought "the time was right" for such explicit images.

"We are breaking new ground in how forthright a magazine can be. We are showing art, love and creative expression . . . all brought to life in physical form," he said.

But industry analysts say the magazine is showing how desperate it is for readers. Circulation for "men's sophisticate" magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse has plummeted in recent years. At its peak in 1977, Penthouse sold 4.6 million copies; last year's circulation was just more than 1 million, according to the Magazine Publishers of America.

"You don't need these magazines now to get that sort of thing," said Steven Cohn, editor of Media Industry Newsletter, which covers the magazine and newspaper businesses. "There's the Internet, videos, pay-per-view, cable. Those magazines had great cachet in the '50s, '60s, '70s, but times have changed."

In publishing the intercourse photos, he said, Penthouse hurdled "the last barrier" for mainstream men's magazines.

"Penthouse figures people can see this stuff elsewhere, they might as well see it here," Cohn said.

Guccione said a "pet of the month" told him about the performance artists, who go by the names Saxon and Steele and who are painted silver in the pictures.

"They're very much in love, a great young couple," he said.

The question is numbers

He acknowledged the magazine's circulation loss but said it had flowed to other parts of his adult-entertainment empire, such as the hugely successful Internet site, which he said gets 5 million to 8 million hits a day.

"We're not in any way desperate," he said.

Keith J. Kelly, a media/business columnist at the New York Daily News, predicted the issue would be a big hit.

"He's a master of PR. He knows this is going to be inflammatory. No doubt in some areas they'll try to ban it, but he'll wave the American flag, he'll get news coverage, and that will help sales. . . . They'll sell out."

Foes of pornography - who persuaded most major convenience and drugstore chains to drop the magazines in the mid-1980s - said they were not surprised.

"Since Mr. Guccione built his reputation being more sordid than (Playboy founder) Hugh Hefner, it shouldn't shock anybody that he is being even more sordid than he himself has been in the past," said Bob Peters, president of Morality in Media.

From the beginning, Penthouse has always been the naughtier of the two magazines. Playboy's premier issue in 1953 with a classic pinup shot of a nude Marilyn Monroe appears almost quaint compared to what passes for cheesecake today.

Sixteen years later, Guccione launched his magazine, and the two have been going thigh-to-thigh ever since.

So what does Playboy think of its top competitor's upping the ante?

Explicit sex "is something Playboy does not do and will not do in your lifetime," huffed Cindy Rakowitz, vice president of public relations and promotion for Playboy, whose circulation is about half its 1972 high of 6.8 million. "This is precisely the type of thing that should reinforce how different Playboy and Penthouse really are."

Though Playboy is claiming the higher moral ground, analysts say it gets most of its revenue from advertising and would have more to lose than Penthouse by crossing the erotica line. It could turn off ad buyers.

"Playboy is trying to take a different tack," Kelly said. "They are trying to bring in more ad dollars. Penthouse seems to be saying we've always made our money on the newsstand and we have to figure out ways to hype that. That forces them to push the envelope further."

The two magazines have always tried to distinguish themselves from their raunchier competitors by publishing serious articles and interviews. John Harrington, a magazine-distribution consultant, said it appears Penthouse is trying to compete with "low-end" magazines such as Hustler.

With distribution already severely restricted, though, the magazine risks being dropped in certain markets, he said.

Actually, this is not the first time Penthouse has shown sexual intercourse. Three years ago, it published pictures of disgraced ice skater Tonya Harding in bed with her husband, Jeff Gillooly. The pictures were taken from a video made on their wedding night and obtained by Penthouse.

Kelly said, in essence, that the Harding-Gillooly photos didn't count as a pioneering event. "That was a one-time event and a fluke as well." The photos in the current issue, he said, represent "a corporate strategic decision."

Guccione also acknowledged a difference.

"Those were not pictures that were styled for the magazine," he said. "Those were the result of investigative reporting. . . . They had hard-news value."